Pain
by EosphorosWriting
Summary: There's trouble with one of Dunstan's funders as he's creating Vice and Ultimo. When Dunstan invites said funder over, something rather alarming happens. One-Shot.


I sigh as I walked through Dunstan's lab behind him and his inhuman assistant, Milieu. I'm his main funder. I run many illegal facilities that have brought in enough money to make me one of the richest people in the 30th century. I knew Dunstan's experiment would eat up a lot on money, and provide none in return, but I was curious as he was. However, his creation of Vice and Ultimo was taking much longer than Milieu's creation had. I warned him that if he didn't hurry up, I'd pull his funding. He told me he was nearly finished with them, but he had told me this many times before. I didn't believe him. I demanded to see for myself what was going on, and how far done he was.

So here we were. I sigh and pull my long, thin cigarette holder out of my mouth, blowing out a puff of smoke, "Are we nearly there? I'm getting tired of walking." I say in a calm though threatening voice.

"Yes, just through this next door," Dunstan assures me. We pause in front of the large door as Dunstan types in some long, complicated key code. I sigh once more and take a deep drag of my cigarette as I wait. My eyes fall on Milieu. He didn't look like much, but I had seen what he and Dunstan could do together.

The door opens slowly, and a faint red and green glow comes from inside. My eyes widen in amazement as I look up, seeing where the glow was coming from. Two tall tubes were standing at the end of the room. One contains a small, fragile and innocent-looking red headed boy. But my attention isn't on him. It was on the green tube. In it is a boy, looking to be only sixteen or seventeen. He has wild black hair and his body has a rougher, vainer look to it than the red head's. His head is bowed, as if he is ashamed, and I can't see his face. I walk closer, ignoring Dunstan's amused chuckle.

A sudden feeling of empathy sweeps over me as I see his face. He looks to be in serious, continuous pain. I know at once that he's Vice, the evil of the pair. I had felt the pain of becoming evil myself. But to me it was worth it in the end. In my head, I'm trying to tell him this silently. I can't help but smile as I see his face soften just a bit.

But then his mouth opens, and his body starts to shake violently, as if in a coughing fit. I look back at Dunstan, who was hurriedly and furiously typing into a computer. His face is scrunched up in confusion and frustration. I bite my lip and look back at Vice, a trail of something dark is coming from his mouth and into the liquid he's floating in.

"Dunstan!" I cry. He runs over and curses as he sees the dark fluid. I groan lightly and place a hand on the glass of the tube. My eyes look downwards, and I see a red button that says 'Emergency Release'. I immediately press it, not caring about the consequences. The glass tube lifts suddenly, and I hold my ground as the liquid rushes out with a loud, crashing noise. I catch Vice, falling backwards as his weight catches me off guard. Dunstan exclaims something, but I can't hear what it is. As I fall on my butt, I hear hoarse coughing. I look down at the helpless, nearly-finished robot worriedly, one arm around his shoulder. Within a few seconds, his coughing fit fades into shallow, raspy breaths. I sigh in relief.

Dunstan, soaked but smiling, walks over, "Nice quick thinking there. His lungs must have accidentally activated. I'll just have to finish working on him in the air, then."

I nod and wipe away what seems to be oil leaking from the corner of his mouth off his cheek. At that moment, I swear I see a flash of gold. I look up at his eyes, surprised by the green and gold irises. It seems to take a lot out of him, just looking at me, and his eyes close again. Dunstan gently takes him away and over to a table. I sit there for a minute, watching from a distance, until Milieu offers me a hand. I take it and stand up, then walk over to Dunstan as he works on fixing the damage done to Vice's lungs.

"…Consider your funding stable…" Is all I say before turning to leave.


End file.
